The girls they fell in love with
by hpwriter1804
Summary: Lynn always told me that woman were the end of everything. A woman had caused Adam to fall from grace, women were typically the cause of war. She was right I thought as I visualized the graves that I had been in front of today. Would this had happened if we hadn't egged them on? Would Lily be dead if she had told him no? Would I be sitting in Bones office being interrogated? No.
1. Chapter 1

The cases of butterbeer were stacked high, hidden behind them were the cases of firewhiskey that somebody had either snagged from Hogshead or the Three Broomsticks - the music was muggle: somebody had snagged a Queen 8-track and Bohemian Rhapsody was playing on replay in the Shrieking Shack. The place was cramped and Charlotte glanced around for her friends. Gwen was curled up on Remus lap - the two had started dating sometime over the summer when they had both been in Bath on holiday.

Lily was not here, or if she was here she was holed up in some corner being standoffish. Rose would be near the epicenter of the party - where she always was. Mary would be curled up probably near the drinks or trying to start a conversation with Peter and then Marlene and Kitty would be somewhere near Sirius.

Sirius - who was now standing in front of Charlotte grinning his broad smile, his black hair was pulled back into a bun. Charlotte raised her eyebrows visions of samurai soldiers going through her mind. She could have sworn she saw a piercing in his ear and his left arm was reaching out for her. She could barely make out the tattoo hidden underneath his watch. "Grey!" He bellowed as he pulled her towards him and into a drunk hug "How was your summer?!" He yelled into her ear. She pulled back a touch grimacing at Sirius.

"It was fine" She said - in any other circumstance one would have known that she was lying, but Sirius was already onto the next person, except his hand didn't release Charlotte's. "Come sit with us?" He asked as he pulled her towards a back corner. Charlotte begrudgingly went - knowing if she was with Sirius at some point she would run across either James trying to corral Lily into a dance or Rose dancing with someone.

Charlotte took a seat on an empty wooden crate across from Sirius who immediately had Kitty Nelson on his lap. The blonde Hufflepuff bombshell was a sweet, beautiful girl, she had always been kind to Charlotte and was a friend of Rose's. "Hello Charlotte!" Kitty bellowed out as she smiled at Charlotte.

"Hello Kitty" Charlotte said trying to plaster a smile on her face. All she wanted was to get back to the common room fairly quickly with either Lily or Gwen. She needed to talk to someone about her summer, hell she'd even take Severus right now if he would have been here or if she had any way to find him.

Marlene slide into the spot next to Sirius and smiled up at Charlotte. "Hello" she said clearly not wanting a response back and Charlotte didn't give her one. Marlene was only liked by the male population at Hogwarts, Kitty, and Lily - who gave everybody at least five chances before writing them off.

"How was your summer?" Kitty yelled as the music stopped for a second, she started giggling when she realized everyone in the room had probably heard her.

"It was great" Marlene said smiling "We went to the South of France" Charlotte snorted into her drink catching the attention of the trio. Marlene's death glare was enough to make Charlotte contemplate leaving right then.

"And how was your summer?" Marlene drawled her voice was full of venom "Read any good Dickens? About Fairy Godmothers and wealthy princes?" her comment must have thrown both Sirius and Kitty off, but Charlotte and Marlene were glaring at each other. Charlotte barely felt Lily push her a little bit off her crate as she chimed in "What's going on?" Lily could obviously tell the tension in this corner was a bit much.

"Oh Marlene was just talking about Dickens and fairytales again" Charlotte said smirking as she watched Marlene's face drop. Charlotte knew that Lily would have no clue what the connotation was, but Marlene didn't know that.

"Right" Lily said drawing out the word as she stared around, deciding whether she wanted to stay here and break up a duel or go somewhere else. "Hey Potter" Lily called out as she stood up "You said there was a really cool view of Hogsmeade?" Obviously, she was choosing Potter over a potential duel between two of her roommates. Lily had tried over the years to calm the tension between Gwen, Charlotte, and Marlene. It was common knowledge why Gwen and Marlene didn't get along - Marlene was McGonagall's favorite and Gwen, McGonagall's daughter, was always in and out of trouble with her mother. Lily had always thought that Charlotte had just taken a hatred to Marlene because Gwen hated her. When in reality, there hatred went deeper - and probably had more justification than Gwen's dislike that her mother seemed to always chastise her and applaud Marlene.

"Let's play Never have I ever!" Kitty said jumping up and down on Sirius lap like she was a five year old girl. Sirius smiled up at her with annoyance, how he dealt with Kitty on a daily basis had always baffled Charlotte.

"Well, we're all going to lose to the virgin Mary over here." Marlene snapped. Charlotte's smirk faltered she probably did deserve that jab. She all but let Marlene know that Lily knew her secret, which would mean that Charlotte had broken their unwritten promise. Even though the two hated each other - Charlotte couldn't help but know she had put herself in pretty hot water with her comment to Lily.

"Well then I'll excuse myself" Charlotte said as she jumped up and made her way to the door. She could see in the corner Remus' arm wrapped around Gwen's waist as they snogged. Charlotte didn't have the urge to go pull them apart even though she knew if she did Gwen would willing walk back to Hogwarts with her. She could barely hear Kitty vomit as Marlene squeaked and jumped up.

As she walked towards the door Charlotte felt a smaller set of hands pull her towards an empty corner. "Peter?" Charlotte said. Peter was about head shorter than the rest of the Marauders who all seemed to be about the same height, he was a little bit stockier than the others. But, he was a loyal friend, he was apparently smart albeit it took him a normal length of time to learn things. The rest of the group were fast learners: Remus studied well before hand, James was just a fast learner, and Sirius - well he surprised everybody and would barely pay attention, barely study, and then somehow be the first one to get the spell right. Charlotte had heard Remus once tell Peter that Sirius was a liar and he did actually study late at night when nobody would realize. His blonde hair was cut short and his blue eyes sparkled. He would be an attractive guy if he didn't have to stand next to Remus, James, and Sirius all the time. Charlotte felt guilt all of a sudden, she felt bad that Peter had to live in the shadows of his more popular, smarter, and well known friends.

"Hi Charlotte" Peter squeaked out "How was your summer?"

"It was okay" Charlotte said she couldn't help but glance past Peter at the door.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Peter asked sincerely "We could grab a butterbeer or something and go sit outside and talk?" Charlotte felt her stomach tighten. He truly was a sweetheart, for a moment she thought about it, but she could see Mary eyeing the two of them from the other corner.

"Not tonight Peter, I'm really tired." Charlotte said stepping past him, but before she left she turned around "Thank you Peter, really thank you. You're the first person who hasn't just run off as soon as I said fine or okay" Charlotte watched Peter smile weakly and then stare down at his feet.

"Good night Charlotte, by the way" Peter said looking up at Charlotte his face was bright red now "You look really beautiful tonight." Charlotte couldn't help but feel her face grow red and all she knew was she needed to get out of the Shrieking Shack.


	2. Chapter 2

Gwen was seated on Remus lap in a backroom of the Shrieking Shack, her mind was whirling as she felt Remus place soft kisses on her neck. She couldn't believe her luck, just this summer he had in a drunken game of truth or dare stated matter of factly that he liked Gwen. It had only taken those words for James, Sirius, and Peter to go to work. It had taken been nearly a week since the game and Gwen had almost lost all hope that Remus had meant what he said.

One night however she had felt Sirius or maybe it was James grab her and push her into a small room in the back of the house the Potters were renting. Gwen had heard Lily protesting outside while James was trying to explain his rationale. Gwen saw Remus sitting down on the bed, his eyes were gazing down and he was trying his hardest not to make eye contact with Gwen. Gwen sighed, she had always hoped to be swept off her feet. She had had visions of a knight in shining armour storming up to her parents house and dragging her away to a life of parties and alcohol. A Gatsby lifestyle was what Lily and Charlotte had called it, but she realized with Remus that she was going to have to do the work if she wanted it.

As she took a seat next to Remus on the bed they sat in silence for what seemed like hours, the small analog clock on the bedside table had only skipped forward five minutes. Gwen liked Remus, she had probably always liked Remus, well at least since her third year when she joined the Quidditch team with Charlotte. Remus was the shy one out of the group; both Sirius and James were attention seekers, Peter followed them around, but Remus - Remus was their best friend but he could stand on his own. If Sirius and James were in detention or busy chasing after a girl Remus could entertain himself. Yet, he was also the most unwilling to ask anyone out. In their fourth year they had all ended up staying over Christmas, and while James was chasing after Lily, Peter was jumping between Gwen and Charlotte trying to get one of them to date him. Remus had quietly sat by and watched the entire thing with enjoyment.

"Remus" Gwen said staring down at the piece of carpet he was staring at. "I like you" she said firmly. Remus head jerked up and he stared at Gwen for a minute or two.

"I like you too, but I don't think we should date" Remus replied back firmly. To anyone else his answer would have seemed final, but Gwen McGonagall had grown up in a house with firm no's and had somehow still gotten her emotionless parents and brother to give her what she wanted. Remus Lupin was not going to be the first person to not fall under her power.

"Why not?" Gwen said lying back on the bed, she watched Remus stare at her legs - she was grateful she had worn the skirt today, her flimsy top was pulled up a bit showing off her stomach, and her breasts were barely hidden behind a not so appropriate bikini top. The outfit had been more to get her mother and father's goat.

Her father, Faxon, would yell at her about showing her body off to men. Her mother would then turn to her father and yell at him for sexualizing his daughter's body. All the while Varick would sit in the living room sighing as he watched Gwen disappear out the house.

If the outfit didn't work, then Gwen would deliberately get caught trying to escape out of the house. That would cause her mother to yell at her for not spending time with her family, which would then cause her father to yell at her mother about all the reasons why someone wouldn't want to be in a room with her, her mother.

Gwen hated the second option, her mother wasn't a bad mother. She was a little too strict, she did have difficulty remembering that during school holidays she was not Professor McGonagall she was Mum, and she wasn't exactly thrilled with Gwen's obsession with muggle romances between princess and princes. But, Gwen would never wish for another mother - except for maybe when her mother was giving her detention.

"Well, because" Remus paused for a moment his eyes were clearly on her hip bone, Gwen smirked as she watched his eyes trace up. He was trying his hardest to stay polite. This was why she liked him so much, Remus tried to act like a proper polite young man and suppress his male hormones. Every now and then they came out, like now.

"Remus" Gwen said pushing herself up and staring at him in the face "I'm not asking you to marry me. I'm asking you to go out with me, like you know study together, go to Hogsmeade together, maybe we could kiss a bit, maybe a little more. I promise Remus" Gwen said dramatically clutching her heart "I won't..." but she hadn't been able to finish her soliloquy, Remus' mouth was on top of hers kissing her softly, sweetly, his hands were on top of hers.

"Okay" he whispered as he had pulled away "You win Gwendolyn, but I'm telling you don't expect me to marry you." Gwen had laughed off the last comment, she didn't give his seriousness or his firmness any more thought.

They had spent the rest of their summer break hand in hand, stealing away quietly for a kiss or two. Remus was a perfect gentleman, even when Gwen had spoken to Lily about her interactions with the guy she had made out with last year or thought back to Charlotte's comments about Davos, she knew Remus was different.

His kisses were soft, his hands stayed in places that her mother would have been okay with, his hands never strayed from those spots. Yet, Gwen could see it in his eyes, the same hunger that seemed permanently attached to Blacks face. With Remus though it was fleeting, it was a kiss that got too passionate, when he pulled back she would see it in his eyes the internal struggle between diving back in and being a teenage male or remaining the guy your parents wanted you to date.

She was pulled from her memories by his hands, they were on her thighs. Gwen sucked in a breath of air as she tried to pretend she didn't feel or see his hands worrying that the moment she made a comment one hand would be back on his knee and the other one would be back on the small of her back. She thought she could feel him smile into her neck as he continued to plant soft kisses. If she didn't know better she would think he had purposefully put his hand on her thigh, teasing her. Reminding her that he could be proper and perfect, but also away from the eyes of her mother he could be like any other teenage boy. The feeling was fleeting as a moment later a crash had jolted both of them. Peter Pettigrew was lying on the floor in front of Remus feet roaring with laughter as the firecracker in his hand fizzled.

"Forgot these things have a kick to them." Remus eyes lit up as he stood up and helped Peter up, his lip was curled up. He was trying to suppress a smile, trying to be the adult in the room.

"Wormy, we've talked about this before." Remus chuckled his voice was filled with mirth as he grabbed a new firecracker and grabbed Gwen by the hand pulling her outside, Peter followed closely behind. "You have to light it and hold firmly." Remus said handing the firecracker to Gwen and pulling her in front of him, one arm held her hand up, the other lit the long fuse and then went to her side holding her firmly against his chest. Gwen held on tightly to the firecracker.

"Loosen your grip, barely hold it" she heard Remus whisper in her ear, she was about to retort that he had just said to hold it firmly, she released her grip though and all of a sudden the firecracker shot up into the night sky, a huge dragon rose out and swooped back down to earth before disappearing in a crack.

"You just have to practice more." Remus said the smirk remaining on his face as he passed the firecracker to Peter. Peter stared at it contemplating what he was doing wrong as he pointed his up to the sky, lit it, and then flew backwards as the dragon roared upwards. Most of the people in the Shrieking Shack had filed outside to see the fireworks and were laughing at Peter who was lying on the ground now.

Gwen felt pity for him for a slight moment before Mary had come running up to check on him and Peter getting some of his wounded pride back had jumped up and bowed to the crowed.

Gwen couldn't get her mind off where Remus hands remained, they were placed around her hips holding her against him as she felt his chest rumble with laughter. Gwen felt a hand come down firmly on Remus shoulder as she turned she saw Lily nervously bounce from foot to foot "Where's Padfoot?" James said as he stared out across the group of students now mingling in the fields.

"I don't know" Remus replied back, before James could go off in search of Black, a dog patronous ran up to their feet.

 _Filch is on the prowl_

"Well Ladies and Gentleman" James yelled out looking over the crowd of students "It looks like tonight's entertainment is over, I'd recommend taking different ways back to the school, unless you're like Peter and you enjoy a good spanking from Filch."

"James enjoys them so much he typically tries to get caught." Peter called out as he had an arm slung over Mary's shoulder. James smirked and winked to the crowd as they started to disperse.

"Shall we hop into Honeydukes?" James asked Remus. Remus nodded his head and turned to Gwen "Hang out here with Lily, don't go anywhere we know a way back to school that will bypass Filch." Gwen nodded her head as she glanced over at Lily. Lily was standing on her tiptoes staring out into the crowd.

"I'm worried about Char" Lily mused, Gwen felt her stomach tighten. She had forgotten all about Charlotte tonight and had thought that Lily would have been with her.

"Don't worry, I think I saw her with Rose." James replied as he lugged a box of firecrackers back into the Shack.


	3. Chapter 3

She took a deep breath of fresh air as she stared up at the castle in the distance. Her mind was racing - how stupid had she been to go toe to toe with Marlene Matthis. This summer had been the worst one since she had been dropped off at the orphanage by her mother when she was five.

Marlene had been brought back to the London orphanage from a long-term home she had been in for the past five years. The reason had been because of the Dark Lord - he was interested in the orphans of Hogwarts. There weren't many, maybe a handful? A dozen at most. But, they were obviously muggles who had some sort of wizarding blood in them. They were easy prey for Death Eaters who wanted to rack up their killed muggles/mudblood levels. Dumbledore had decided that if they were all put in one or two orphanages they could protect one another and also limit the amount of muggle orphans killed if the Death Eaters attacked. That had meant that Marlene had to leave her home and return back to the orphanage. Which had not went over well, Marlene felt that she had succeed from getting out under the omnipresent Lynn and having a relatively normal life, with a normal family. Now she was back in the long halls of beds, the communal showers, and the food that had even made the cooks husband, a military man, gag commenting he'd rather eat the freeze dried meals the military provided instead of what they had to eat.

On top of that, all freedom was gone. Marlene had been used to walking around the muggle village on her own and having a little bit of pocket change to buy herself something. Now they were surround by Lynn, her religious ideology, and being reminded day in and day out how they as women were sirens that would throw men off course, the best thing they could do was go into a field like housekeeping or cooking and try to redeem themselves from whatever sins their parents had that had caused them to show up on the orphanage doorsteps.

" _You must remember" Lynn's voice echoed "That as orphan girls, you are more apt to ruining families than girls brought up in proper families. Your mother's obviously came from the same background as you, they however did not have a firm hand guiding them towards proper employment and away from men. They thought they were in love or thought a child would solidified an engagement and out came you, they were put on the streets, and you were put here. We are trying to break that cycle"_

Trying to break the cycle by reminding them how bothersome they were. Lynn didn't miss an opportunity to remind the girls how they could ruin proper men with their deceitfulness and how they would never be successful at anything. The whole goal of Lynn's orphanage was to have you recognize that you had to pay for your parents and possibly even your grandparents sins by devoting your life to celibacy and caring for someone else in order to break said cycle. Ideally, you'd go get yourself fixed like you were a dog and not reproduce.

On top of the Marlene and Lynn stuff, Charlotte and Rose had been worried about turning 18. At 18 the orphanage kicked you out - whether or not you had a place to go. That meant that as of November 10 1977 Rose would no longer have a place to call home and as of August 31 1978 Charlotte would no longer have a place to live. They had been in a perpetual stressed mood since watching Vivian be kicked out of the house. Vivian was handed 200 pounds and been pushed out the door - her fate was hers now. Where she was going to sleep, how she was going to make a living, or eat was now her problem. They had heard her sobbing and begging, pleading for one extra week to see how a job interview went to be an au pair in France. But, Lynn would hear nothing of it and had shoved her out the door.

Charlotte didn't doubt that Marlene was just as stressed as the rest of them, which had probably been the point of her comment. Dickens had always been code for the orphanage - the orphanage was far from the ones written about in Dickens novels. It was still a loveless place that gave the children the bare minimum needed to survive before pushing them out onto the streets as an 18th birthday present. The fairy Godmother and Prince Charming comment was code for nice mothers and fathers and/or a boyfriend who would protect them. Naturally, when you were a child you dreamed that someone would show up on the doorsteps of the orphanage and explain to Lynn, the head of the orphanage, that your being there had resulted in some cruel and unusual circumstances and that you had many loving people searching for you.

It rarely happened. Only once in Charlotte's 11 years at the orphanage had someone been picked up by a parent. Once. Most of them were products of affairs, hence the breaking the cycle comments from Lynn.

Charlotte sighed as she started walking back towards Hogwarts, she had a meeting with Professor McGonagall tomorrow to go over her career choices. The idea was to look into some mixed careers, ones that could be used in both the muggle and magical world, but would require additional studying at a muggle university. One such career was to become a lawyer. Wizarding Lawyers needed to know the muggle laws because every now and then they would be called into a muggle court because a wizard got him or herself in trouble. Or they would be needed to explain to a muggle parliament member or prime minister why they couldn't do something they wanted to do. Apparently an Amelia Bones, who had been the head girl in Charlotte's second or third year was currently finishing up or had just finished up at Oxford and was now seeking employment at the Wizengamot, but had enough training to fall back on a Muggle barrister job if needed.

McGonagall had stressed to Charlotte, that while she felt Charlotte could do bigger and better things - going to a university would promise her three years of room and board and she could work part-time saving up some money before she needed to move out into the real world. McGonagall had no doubt that Charlotte's grades were good enough for a muggle university, she was just worried that Charlotte was only going for survival and not for a career.

"Oi Charlotte!" Charlotte whirled around to see Sirius running to catch up with her. His smile was intoxicating. The two of them had probably spoken more in the past day then they had much of their career at Hogwarts. He was the arch-nemesis, James #2, who would do anything to help James gain access to the trinity (as Lily, Gwen, and Charlotte were called by the Marauders). The name had started as somewhat of a joke by Marlene since Charlotte and Lily and to a lesser extent Gwen were prudish. They had been the last girls to start dating, snogging, and even having sex.

The girls had made a pact in their third year they would never date the Marauders. Yet, it had been Remus who had done it, and probably only Remus could have done it. Now Lily and Charlotte were unwilling members of the Marauders parties because they had to support Gwen - and they liked Remus.

"Black" Charlotte grumbled as she quickly thought of a way to get rid of him. It was nearly an hour if not hour and a half to get back to Hogwarts and she wasn't really in the mood for his banter or his I'm too good for all this attitude. Yet, Sirius remained silent as they walked through the village.

It wasn't until they could see Hogwarts that Sirius broke the silence "I wanted to apologize for Mar's comment. She really had no reason to call you out for being a virgin." Charlotte raised her eyebrows, of course she had been grouchy all summer that Rose and Marlene talked about sex nonstop, and of course she was irritated with the fact that she hadn't had it yet, but she didn't think it was something that Black needed to apologize for.

"I would have never guessed, if that's any consolation." Black smirked, Charlotte opened her mouth to retort with something along the lines of - it doesn't fucking matter or your opinion doesn't mean shit to me - but instead closed her mouth knowing fully well that as much as she tried to push it out of her mind Sirius Black was a handsome guy and two she had already put her foot in her mouth with Marlene tonight she might as well try to not piss anyone else off.

Charlotte decided silence was the best answer to that comment. "Truly, though" Black started again "Weren't you dating Davos last year? I heard he is kinda pushy."

Again Charlotte chose silence, Sirius was pushing his luck and Charlotte had to remind herself how much she wanted Gwen and Remus to succeed. They were perfect for each other: She was hotheaded and stubborn, he was calm and patient, they both felt like they were outcasts and they both enjoyed the same subjects in school.

"I mean, just let me know did Davos have issues...you know?" Sirius whispered a hint of humor coming out. Charlotte whirled around staring Black in the face, she had tried her hardest to keep her anger and frustration in control. But, Sirius was pushing too many damn buttons. But, before Charlotte could open her mouth to start telling Sirius where he could shove his opinions and his questions. His mouth was on hers and his arm were pulling her closer to him. For a moment Charlotte resisted, but the moment he nipped on her bottom lip she was done. She didn't know how long they stood their snogging, her feet were rooted to the ground and Sirius was holding her upright. Wouldn't this be a sight for Marlene or Kitty to see, coming back towards Hogwarts and seeing SIrius and Charlotte kissing?

Sirius and Charlotte kissing? Her body finally reacted shoving him off her and glaring at him. Sirius however was smirking as he watched Charlotte's face screw up to start yelling at him. "Don't yell Lottie" Sirius whispered stepping closer to her "Wouldn't want Filch to find us would we?"

Charlotte's voice was lost in her throat as she contemplated the detention. On one hand she wasn't worried on the other hand she was certain that it may require more time spent with Sirius cleaning trophies or cleaning a room in the dungeon. She decided storming back to the castle in silence was the best option.

"Lottie" Sirius said trying to catch up to her. _Lottie,_ Charlotte thought, nobody had ever called her that. She was either Char, Charlotte, or Grey.

"What?!" Charlotte turned around glaring at Sirius. He nearly ran into her not expecting her to stop dead in her tracks. His hand went absentmindedly to his neck rubbing the back of his neck. Charlotte knew it was something that Sirius did when he was nervous. When he was stressed he would typically grip the back of his neck or his hair with both hands.

"Maybe we should talk?" Sirius asked, his voice quivered a little between confidence and timid.

"About what?" Charlotte said growing annoyed, all she had wanted this evening was to have a good time, forget her problems and maybe talk over her issues with Lily and Gwen. Instead Gwen had dragged them to this party and then decided to be lip locked with Remus the whole night. Lily had scampered away to a corner trying to be a good friend, but not have James see her. That left Charlotte all by herself, pissing Marlene off and somehow ending up kissing Sirius Black.

"Well..." Sirius said trailing his voice off as his head jerked to the side of the castle. "Shit" he whispered grabbing Charlotte's hand and pulling her towards the Quidditch fields.

"What the hell?" Charlotte said trying to pull her hand away. But, Sirius was tapping on the wall of the castle and a door had appeared.

"In" he whispered pushing Charlotte down some stairs, before he came in Charlotte saw Sirius shoot off a Patronous towards the Shrieking Shack.

"What the hell, Sirius?" Charlotte snapped glaring at Sirius as he pushed past her, he turned around facing her and smiling before planting a quick kiss on her lips and continuing down the stairs.

"Coming Grey?" Sirius called as he jumped down the five steps, Charlotte groaned of course she was coming. Obviously, someone was on patrol outside the castle, she wasn't exactly interested in getting caught by Filch or Flitwick. She followed Sirius down the corridor and watched him push open the back of a portrait. As Charlotte caught up to him she realized he was stepping into the kitchens. Charlotte paused as she raised her eyebrows towards Black. "How do you know about this place?"

"Does it really matter right now?" Sirius asked still holding his hand out to her.

"Yes, it does" Charlotte snapped folding her hands over her chest and refusing to move. She watched Sirius sigh as he stared at Charlotte, his eyes were sparkling.

"We get hungry alot, had to find different ways to get down here." Sirius answered. Charlotte had a feeling that he was lying, but the smell of the kitchen was drawing her in. She hadn't eaten much at the feast, mainly because they had been sitting with the Marauders and she had lost her appetite when Sirius had started talking about the life of the dead animals on the table had had before being butchered to be eaten.

"I promise I won't name the food again" Sirius said his lips twitching up into a smile. Charlotte hated when Sirius would do this. It was like he could read her mind.

"Fine" Charlotte huffed as she stepped into the portrait and Sirius reached up for her to help her down. Charlotte pushed his hands away and jumped down the 10 feet or so to the floor. Charlotte hated the smirk on Sirius face.

"How may we help you sir and ma'am?" A house-elf asked as he watched the two intruders.

"We'd like some food and some pumpkin juice." Sirius replied

"If you have soup..." Charlotte started, but before she could finish she saw the house-elves lugging over a huge cauldron of soup. "Not that much" she whispered more to herself, but her face was burning with embarrassment.

Charlotte heard Sirius's bark like laugh as he settled himself down on one of the tables "They enjoy this" he said nodding towards the face of the house-elves "They live to serve us." Charlotte felt her stomach drop. House-elves were what Lynn thought she was worth. All she'd be good for was to be somebodies housekeeper, governess, or cook.

"What's wrong Lot?" Sirius asked as he crooked his head a little bit.

"Nothing" Charlotte mumbled as she took a seat at the bench, Sirius was sitting on the table looking down at her, his damn smile was still on his face as he leaned his head onto his hand.

"They enjoy this" Sirius reiterated. Charlotte smiled weakly as she stirred her soup watching the steam drift upwards. Sirius had opened up a pumpkin juice and they sat in silence for a few minutes. "So, Gwen and Remus" Sirius finally said looking down at Charlotte trying to read her expression.

"Yep" Charlotte said, she hadn't had much time to process the fact that Gwen and Remus were going out. She had just found out yesterday on the train to Hogwarts and honestly she was happy for them. Remus was a sweet guy who wasn't running around with every girl at Hogwarts. To be quite honest Charlotte couldn't remember Remus with anyone before this.

"And James is trying to win Lily over" Sirius stated still watching Charlotte

"Yep" Charlotte repeated now looking up at Sirius, she wasn't sure she liked where this line of questioning was going. She really just wanted to go to bed, she didn't have the will to play 21 questions with Sirius - she wanted to process why he kissed her and start thinking about what she needed to do to get into a muggle university.

"So that leaves us" Sirius said smirking.

"What do you mean us?" Charlotte asked, she couldn't help but feel her stomach flip.

"Well to hang out." Sirius winked.

"Hang out? Don't you have Peter?" Charlotte asked silently wishing she knew how to get back to the Gryffindor common room without Sirius being able to find her.

Sirius scoffed as he slid down to the bench, his side was pressed against hers and he was leaning against the table watching her. "Peter and I have a lot of differences - plus I'm looking for female companionship."

"So why not Kitty or Marlene?" Charlotte questioned.

"I don't know" Sirius whispered his head moving towards hers, Charlotte broke eye contact staring back at her soup. "I guess, after I kissed you I thought - hell let's have some fun."

"Fun?" Charlotte asked.

"Whatever you'd like" Sirius answered.

"You know Lily would hate this." Charlotte said, she didn't know why she was saying this - Lily shouldn't be a factor into what she wanted. "Or what if I wanted to have fun with Peter?" Charlotte couldn't believe the words rolling off her tongue, it's like she was trying to tease him - when in reality she just wanted to get away from him.

"She doesn't need to know" Sirius whispered into Charlotte's ear "No strings attached, fun times. Plus..." Sirius said this time his mouth was cupping her ear, his fingers running up and down her arm. "I don't think Peter can make you feel like this."

What the hell? Charlotte thought as she stared at Black in the kitchen leaning towards her. What did she have to lose. If anything this would just piss Marlene off, and that was a plus. Also, up until about a day ago she was unsure if Black even knew she was a girl. Black knew her as Charlotte the Catcher on the Quidditch team with James and Gwen. Black was a beater, but outside of that their conversations had been very limited.

"Okay" Charlotte replied, she didn't know why she was saying Okay. She should have told Sirius to fuck off and stormed off, but his damn eyes, his smile, his whole body reeked of bad choices. If Charlotte was being honest with herself, she would tell herself that the pact against dating Marauders was all fine and dandy at 13, but puberty had done wonders on them.

"Alright" Sirius smirked leaning in to kiss Charlotte again "Whatever you want, I won't push you, and we'll keep this between us?"

"Of course" Charlotte replied feeling Sirius mouth on hers. God she thought this isn't going to end well.


	4. Chapter 4

Charlotte was staring up at her four poster bed, the shower was running and Charlotte was certain that Lily was currently in the shower. Her curtains were drawn back as Gwen jumped into her bed and curled up next to her. "So, are you upset?" Gwen whispered turning to look at Charlotte.

"No, I'm really happy for you" Charlotte said smiling as she turned to look at Gwen. Gwen was beaming her eyes staring up at the ceiling.

"I really like him" she whispered quietly

"I thought you just wanted to see how long you could go without breathing last night." Charlotte jested. Gwen rolled her eyes and looked back at Charlotte.

"Where did you end up last night?" Charlotte sighed as she stared up at the roof of her bed, she knew that everyone was happy for Gwen and Remus, but Sirius and James were different animals. Remus was just a typical teenage, cocky, too smart for his own good guy. Sirius and James were just assholes. Privately, the three girls would agree that they were bullies, and somehow they rationalized Remus's part in it and Peter was just "poor Peter" to them.

"The kitchen, I was starving" Charlotte answered, her stomach tightened up. She had never lied to Gwen before or Lily - they were best friends.

"Yeah, Sirius talking about Porky the pig and his beloved sty as we ate pork chops was a little unappealing." Gwen muttered

"Or his weird comment about Remus liking rare meat, like a Frenchman" Charlotte responded. The two girls sighed as if they were saying _Guys_ and with that the curtain opened and Lily with her wet hair jumped into the bed on the other side of Charlotte looking up towards the ceiling.

"What are we sighing about?" Lily asked.

"Guys" the two said in unison

"Of course" Lily said sighing and with that all three girls burst out in laughter.

"By the way" Gwen said rolling over onto her side "What were you and Potter doing last night?" Lily's face went beat red and she flung the pillow at Gwen, who quickly blocked it. The girls continued laughing until Marlene ripped back the curtains glaring at the trio "Shut up, it's Saturday" she seethed before flinging the curtains back. The girl stifled their laughs as they got out of bed, as they were leaving Lily flicked her wand at Marlene's bed and the mattress started shaking vigorously.

"ARGH! MCGONAGALL!" Marlene roared as the three girls burst out of the room and down to the common room.

The morning had flown by, Charlotte had met with McGonagall who, more or less, let Amelia Bones discuss with Charlotte what her career aspirations were and her knowledge of the muggle world.

Amelia ended the conversation by saying "You have the grades and the knowledge of the muggle world to succeed, but I don't know if this is really what you want?"

Charlotte had reiterated that this was all she wanted. But, she was unsure of herself - she had always been interested in being a Curse-Breaker, but Charlotte couldn't help but feel her stomach tighten up as she made her way down the hallway to the library. _There is always Muggle liason_ Amelia had said as she watched Charlotte, looking back Charlotte thought that was a test - the disgusted look Charlotte gave to the idea of working with Muggle Liason showed both McGonagall and Amelia Bones that Charlotte wasn't actually interested in muggles or the muggle world, she wanted to fully integrate in the wizarding world - but Charlotte knew what it felt like to not know where your next meal would come from. She didn't like to think back on the days before she showed up at the orphanage.

Charlotte didn't even realize that she had made her way to the back corner of the library until she felt her leg bump the table "Shit" she mumbled as she rubbed her leg.

"I didn't see you at breakfast" Charlotte jerked her head up and saw Sirius Black sitting on the table in the back of the library holding in his hand what looked like two cups of coffee. Charlotte was certain it was coffee she could smell the aroma of it. He held out a mug to her, she sighed a deep relaxing breath as she held the cup under her chuckled "I thought of all things you'd want, you'd want coffee." Charlotte raised her eyebrows at him. She wouldn't say it was a secret that she loved coffee, she'd been drinking it since she was about 14 - initially because she was being pretentious and trying to act older and more mature. By 15 it was needed at least once a day - now at 16 it was a full on addiction. But, Charlotte would have bet 100 galleons that up until yesterday night Sirius Black only knew that Charlotte was a decent Chaser on the Quidditch team.

Charlotte sat down at the table, she was amazed at how relaxed Sirius was. He was sitting on a table in the library and he had brought in coffee. If Madam Conway walked in right now Sirius would be in detention for the rest of his career at Hogwarts. "Aren't you worried about Madam Conway?"

Sirius smiled and looked down at Charlotte curiously, Charlotte couldn't stop the red coloring creeping up her face. "Do you always live your life by the rules?"

"Char!" Charlotte turned around and saw Lily Evans coming towards her, her face was twisted up in a disgusted look as she made contact with Sirius "Black" Lily growled as she took a seat next to Charlotte. Charlotte watched as she grabbed the other mug and sniffed the coffee before taking a sip.

"That was mine" Sirius said smirking at Lily.

"You don't drink coffee, Black." Lily snapped back pulling a book out of her bag. "I got your class schedule here." Charlotte smiled as she looked over her classes.

"Defense against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Charms, and Potions" Sirius said glancing down at Charlotte's schedule "We have 4 out of 6 classes together."

"Oh the joys" Lily voice was dripping with contempt for Black.

"What are you taking?" Sirius asked as he snatched Lily's schedule out of her hand "Potions, Transfiguration, Herbology, Charms, and Defense against the Dark Arts. We have everything together. Lily Evans are you trying to be an Auror?"

Lily's face had gone completely white as she jerked her head up at Charlotte, Charlotte smirked knowing that Lily's worst fear was having every class with James Potter and if she had classes with Sirius, chances were high that James Potter had all the same classes as Sirius. "No" Lily answered firmly composing herself as she looked back up at Sirius "Healer"

Sirius stroked his imaginary beard as he looked down at Lily "Very important career, you know I want to be a Hit Wizard - maybe you'll be my Healer?"

"Ugh!" Lily screamed slamming her hands down on the table "Do you know how irritating you are Black?" But, Sirius was ignoring her now, obviously irritating Lily even more.

"You know Remus wants to be an Auror, Gwen is wanting to go into Potions, James well interestingly enough he's taking the core classes - his dad told him he had to - but he's taking History of Magic, Ancient Runes, and Ancient Studies."

Lily had stopped her muttering as she heard that James was continuing on with History of Magic. "James, I mean Potter, is taking what?"

"History of Magic, Ancient Runes, and Ancient Studies. Monty told him he had to take a few of the core courses so he's taking all the ones to become an Auror to, but he's more interested in doing something with magical artifacts and reading about the history of the magical world."

"Potter is taking 8 N.E.W.T classes?" Lily's mouth was opening and closing slowly as if she was trying to process something horrific, like a death in the family or like how last year she found out that Petunia was dating a guy who actually made her a decent person to be around.

"Yes" Sirius affirmed. Lily stared down at her books and mumbled "I think I forgot my Transfiguration book" and with that she had jumped out of her seat and was marching towards the front of the library. Sirius and Charlotte watched her storm off "Guess she doesn't like the idea that Prongs isn't some bubbling idiot."

"Well he does act like one" Charlotte replied staring up at Sirius, _god he did look hot_ Charlotte pushed the thought out of her mind as she turned back to her own schedule "Well I guess I have Ancient Runes and Ancient Studies with Potter then."

"What do you want to do?" Sirius asked sincerely, he had slid himself down to the chair. Charlotte couldn't help but wonder how he could gracefully push himself off the table and slide down on the bench with ease. If she tried that she was certain she'd face plant into the floor. Then again she had visited A&E this summer because she had ran into a parked car.

Charlotte did try to ignore the question, but Sirius kept staring at her - she hadn't even told LIly and Gwen the truth and here she was contemplating telling Sirius first. How could he do this? This arrogant ass somehow could make her feel as if he cared. But, every time she started to think like that she reminded herself that in a split second he got that secret he was vying for and her secret would be out to the world.

But, it spilt out - her brain had told her not to say a damn word, but her mouth had other thoughts. "I don't know. I want to be a cursebreaker, but I need to make sure that after I graduate I have a place to live and that I can take care of my basic needs. So I'm thinking about going to a muggle university so I can either get a job with Muggle Liaison or maybe if I'm lucky go into the Wizengamot." Charlotte felt her stomach sink as she realized how much she had let spill to Sirius Black.

 _Might as well have told him your whole family history_.

"You're one of the smartest in our class." Sirius said softly tucking some of Charlotte's hair behind her ear. "I'd beat you're even smarter than Evans. If you want to be a Curse Breaker then you'll be one, no need to waste away your life in the Muggle Liason building."

"What if that's what I want to do?" Charlotte snapped back. She really didn't like the fact that all the sixth years were now comparing each other - based on their career choices. It made her sick to her stomach firstly: what would happen if you didn't get the N.E.W.T.S needed? Then everyone would know when you didn't have the career you paraded around Hogwarts. Secondly: It was nobody's damn business what someone decided to do with their life. To some people Muggle Liaison would be a perfectly fine job. Others, like Sirius, wanted to get themselves blown up as Hit Wizards.

"Well if you really wanted to do it, you wouldn't have qualified the statement with 'I want to be a cursebreaker but..." Sirius said making air quotations. "Plus, I find it interesting that Peter wants to go into Muggle Liason, did you tell him about it?"

Charlotte shook her head as she looked curiously at Sirius, he always seemed irritated with Peter and annoyed with his presence. They were supposed to be the best of friends. Anybody in Gryffindor, who was in their year, knew Peter and Sirius didn't get along. James kept Peter around like he was a kid brother, Remus got along with Peter - well because Remus was Remus, but since Sirius and Peter were 11 they had gotten into petty arguments between each other.

It was a different kind of fighting then what the rest of the group would have with each other. In their fifth year Sirius had done something that had him outcasted from the entire group, but once the problem was resolved - they had never spoken about it again. Sirius and Peter however, would constantly bring up the last time the other one had wronged them to justify why they had done what they did.

Charlotte stared at Sirius, his black hair was loose today and he had a shadow on his face letting Charlotte know he hadn't shaved the night before. Charlotte watched his fingers tracing random shapes on her arm and moved her eyes up his fingers to his firm hands, to his muscular arms. This time Charlotte didn't shake the dirty thought out of her mind, she leaned in for a kiss thinking _I might as well take advantage of Sirius's willingness._

They were in the back of the library, his mouth was on hers, her hand was in his hair the other one was pulling at his shirt. Sirius groaned as he felt Charlotte's hand touch his chest. He had her pressed against a bookshelf in the restricted area and he could feel her body molding into his. Sirius had a fleeting thought of Peter coming in and finding the two of them in this position. Sirius hiked Charlotte up so her legs were wrapped around his waist and her skirt was pushed up.

 _There, Peter is going to have a fucking field day if he comes in_

Charlotte moaned softly as he bit her lower lip, he didn't know why but it set him off. He pulled away from her and started to memorize her face. "So" Sirius said huskily wondering what it would be like right now to unzip his pants, push her underwear aside and thrust into her. He shook the image out of his head as he stared at her. "Where do we want to go from here?"

"Excuse me?" Charlotte said, she must have registered the compromising position she was in as she unhooked her legs from around Sirius and stood on her own accord trying to fix her shirt, hair, and skirt.

"What do you want this to be?" Sirius asked again. He hadn't realized how far he had pushed down the feeling that he was completely smitten with her. If he was being honest with himself he had noticed her last year, she had punched Mulciber in the nose after a nasty Quidditch match. For some reason that had drawn him in, but he hadn't said or done anything. Charlotte was a good girl, she was dating Davos and Marlene had told him that she wasn't looking for a hookup - Charlotte was looking for a relationship. Sirius Black did not do relationships.

But, on the train to Hogwarts when Peter had brought up that he liked Charlotte and wanted to date her, Sirius had seethed. James had been all in; discussing numerous crazy and more than likely unsuccessful ways to get Charlotte to go out with him. Remus had tried to rationalize the whole situation, reminding Peter that he should probably see if the feeling was mutual. That had caused an argument between Remus and James about whether or not you should wait for a girl to have feelings for you before asking her out or should you just ask her out and then try to win her over.

Sirius, if he was being completely honest with himself, had spent the rest of the ride trying to control the green eyed monster inside him.

"I don't know Black" Charlotte chirped as she tried to straighten out her skirt.

"I'm not into relationships" Sirius mused as he watched her straighten her skirt. _Maybe I would be, she's pretty hot_

"Okay?" Charlotte asked looking back up at him confused.

"Why did you say okay?" Sirius asked, this was the first time in 3 years that he had had to work for a girls attention.

"I don't know" Charlotte whispered staring back at Sirius "I guess I decided what the fuck? Might as well give it a shot - and with Sirius Black to boot" Charlotte said smirking. Sirius didn't know if she was joking or if she wa serious. But, in that moment he could hear that small voice in his head _just do it_. Peter would kill him if he found out that Charlotte and Sirius were running around together like they were secretly in a relationship.

"Well tell you what Lottie" Sirius started leaning in towards her "Let's just see where this goes day by day, _secretly,_ and just see where this takes us."

"Fine" Charlotte said staring at Sirius determinedly. Sirius was taken aback, here he was willing to lock himself in and Charlotte was acting like he had asked her to go out for some extra Quidditch practice.

"Fine?" Sirius asked again, he could hear the annoyance sliding into his voice.

"Yeah?" Charlotte said walking back over to the table she had left her books on.

Sirius decided not to press his luck, pulling on the back of his neck he watched her grab her bag and turn to leave. She paused and turned around walking back to Sirius and planted a kiss on his lips "Thanks for the coffee and remember, you said secret. If you tell anyone I will deny it." Charlotte said firmly, Sirius nodded his head as he watched her pull back and walk out to the front of the library.


End file.
